Finding Documentation Becomes a Pain

Each time you go about setting up software you may encounter a series of issues or complications that can make the task much more difficult. In order to counteract these issues or complications, one can usually find some useful and comprehensive documentation relating to the problem and solutions on how to fix them. Perhaps the worst time someone can experience when trying to deploy a software is having trouble finding initial documentation in the first place.

Installing (or attempting to install Hadoop) this semester, has allowed me to gain a greater appreciation for documentation and complete step-by-step instructions. Looking through the documentation for Hadoop, I have noticed they have recently updated the software, and describe some of the advantages the newer version has. However, the install instructions they have seem to be for one of the original versions, and searching for other install instructions hasn’t yielded much help either. I’m sure most of you reading this blog can understand the frustration that must be associated with it. Finding the correct way to set up the base system so the different parts of Hadoop works has proven to be anything but a simple task.

At this point the strategy is to continue to look for any documentation that might be useful, use the pieces that I’ve found from different areas and put them together to see if something works, and look at contacting people who have set up the new system before. By following this plan, and devoting the necessary time to the project, should get results before the end of the semester.

At this point, my understanding of Hadoop is slowly growing and as I do certain things, I continue to update my own documentation which hopefully can be used to redeploy the system if necessary in the future.